


Promise

by Aridette



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Anakin is a child, Fluff, Gen, Hurt, Injury, Injury Recovery, no there is no shipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 13:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6471079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aridette/pseuds/Aridette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Obi-Wan goes on a dangerous mission, leaving his young Padawan behind. When he returns injured, Anakin insists he come along the next time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Like all my Star Wars fics this is unbetaed. If you notice any grave mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them.  
> Otherwise, enjoy :)

Taking a boy of ten along on this sort of mission was unthinkable. Out of question. It would be beyond dangerous, even given the skills of the child in question. Just because Obi-Wan could look after himself and the couple of soldiers that had been sent with him to seek a peaceful solution for a conflict on a Mid Rim world, did not mean he could at the same time fulfill his duty towards a child. Not too long ago he had still been a Padawan himself and fought alongside his Master. He was well aware of the situations a Jedi Apprentice might find themselves in. And he was aware enough of his own abilities to know without a doubt that he would not be able to protect the boy, the Chosen One, while he had had so little training in using the Force, or a lightsaber for that matter. A civil war battlefield was no place for a child in any case.

The discussion with Anakin that had ensued had been long and stretched out over days. It had taken patience and time he should have spent preparing for the task at hand - battle tactics, political conflicts, locations of hide-outs and hot spots. In the end he had had to read up on most of it during the flight because he had only just managed to make enough time to find the relevant data within the archives.

When things had gotten out of hand and they had ended up engaging in a battle he should have been able to avoid altogether, he had blamed the child. For wasting his time and directing his thoughts away from saving an entire species from being slaughtered. People had died because one child had thrown a temper tantrum.  
These had been his thoughts as he went into battle to secure the escape of the remaining refugees.

Laid out on a stretcher in Med Bay and barely conscious - from the wounds he had taken in battle or the painkillers, he did not know - he realized he only had himself to blame.

Anakin was young and had joined the Jedi too late to simply accept his place in the Temple without questioning what was happening around him. And Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan of all people, was the one he trusted and relied upon for instructions and explanations. Sometimes it felt a little like his teachers hardly reached him with their words.  
Quietly at night, Obi-Wan often wondered if perhaps his words never reached the boy either.

He remained barely conscious the entire flight back to Coruscant. One day, or perhaps night, he noticed a change in the lights overhead. That was when he knew he had been brought back to the Temple for further treatment.

* * *

The moment of desorientation when he blinked his eyes open much later was made worse by the not so quietly whispered admonishment nearby.

“Master Kenobi needs to rest, you can visit him later.” a Healer, Obi-Wan presumed, chided.

“But I want to be there when he wakes up! I can help him!” a much younger voice protested with much desperation.  
  
“You can’t help him, boy. He just needs time to heal.”

“Yes I can! I read all about it! He is **MY** Master, I can use the Force, I have to- I can-” he sounded more frantic with every word.

“Anakin?” Obi-Wan asked, his voice rough from disuse, but loud enough to be heard.  
He gulped heavily, trying not to cough, but failed spectacularly.  
Within seconds the curtains to his right were pulled back and his young Padawan rushed to his side.

“Master! You are awake!”  
Despite the boy always trying his hardest to seem tough, there was an unmistakable glimmer in his eyes as he handed him a glass of water.

Obi-Wan smiled.  
“It appears I am.” He reached out and ruffled Anakin’s hair affectionately before he took the offered glass. A few gulps later he finally felt like he could speak somewhat normally again.  “It’s good to see you.”

The Healer Obi-Wan had heard before appeared behind Anakin, looking more than a little apologetic.  
“I am so sorry, Master Kenobi. He wouldn’t leave, no matter what.”   
  
“It’s quite alright.”   
No sooner had these words left his mouth than Anakin had thrown himself at him, hugging him tighter than was strictly advisable, given Obi-Wan’s still healing injuries. But for the sake of his Apprentice, he could bear the pain a little longer. He made sure none of the pain accidentally found its way through their training bond to his Padawan, although he pulled a face while the ten-year-old could not see him.

“Alright, alright, that’s enough.” The Healer stepped in. “At least let me run a few scans, before you-” he gestured at the boy and was surprised to find him backing up and sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed instead. Anakin quietly let the Healer work, but watched every movement with an almost eery scrutiny, cataloguing every injury that was being checked upon.

* * *

A few hours later Obi-Wan awoke from a much-needed nap. Staying awake for longer periods of time was still strenuous, but the Healer had assured him it should take but a few days to recover now that he had properly been taken care of rather than just patched up perfunctorily.  
Tilting his head to the left, Obi-Wan found Anakin clutching his hand and looking up at him where his head rested on the bed.

“I should have been there to help you, Master.” he said, sounding even smaller and younger than he was.

“There was nothing you could have done to help and I don’t want to think about what could have happened to you, Anakin.” Obi-Wan said softly.  
“This mission was too much to take on alone, even for me.” he continued. “Next time we’ll be better prepared.”

“You are not going back, are you?” Anakin asked worriedly.  
  
“I don’t know the Council’s plans, but it would make sense.” Obi-Wan hated bringing this up so soon. He could almost feel Anakin’s oncoming temper. But in his condition he could do very little to reassure the boy and calm him down.

“I won’t let you go.” Anakin said in his most stubborn tone.

“I wouldn’t be going all by myself.”

“No. I won’t let them send you away again when I can’t come with you.”  
Obviously he was in one of his more petulant moods, Obi-Wan noticed.   
  
_//Terrible timing,//_ he thought. _//When I can hardly stay awake long enough to have an entire conversation.//_   
He sighed. A new wave of fatigue was rising inside of him, but he tried his best to fight it off a little longer.   
“Anakin, we’ve talked about this-”

“I know, Master. You said I wasn’t old enough and not strong enough.” He looked away and huffed, then muttered “And that is true.”

Obi-Wan blinked, stunned into momentary silence.   
This was new.

“So you can’t go back.”   
Carefully, Anakin climbed onto the bed and huddled up against Obi-Wan, his cheek resting just below one of the nastier wounds to his Master’s chest.  
“Not before I’m strong enough to protect you, Master.”

Again, Obi-Wan smiled quietly and petted the boy’s head. He was too tired to do much more. Even lifting his arm was a challenge, but if it meant he could reassure his Padawan, he could manage somehow.

“Because I will. I promise, Master. Soon I’ll be strong enough and then we can go back together.” Anakin said softly, defiantly.  
“I promise.”

It was the last thing Obi-Wan heard before he drifted off into oblivion once more.

_//I will protect you too, Anakin. I promise.//_ he wanted to reply, but the grip unconsciousness had on him was too strong to defy any longer.


End file.
